Just So Stories

Ford St Publishing

February 2023

ISBN : 9781922696212

RRP: $17.95

It took some time for this one to arrive into my eagerly waiting hands, but it was definitely worth the wait. It was an absolute delight to share this one with some bouncy Year 2s this week, all of whom (even the neuro-diverse child who had been unhappy and fretting for his mum all morning) were intently listening from the start, and thoroughly engrossed with Hedgehog.

When anyone wonders what kind of dog Hedgehog is, they soon realise that she is a WONDER! dog. The children loved seeing Hedgehog’s antics and were eager after our reading to share any extraordinary thing their own dogs do (very little, I assure you!). Certainly Hedgehog can sit, roll over and shake paws – she can even fetch – but Sam, and the other kids in the hospital, know that Hedgehog’s true superpower is her soothing presence which helps them heal.

The kiddos all comprehended quite easily both the setting and the theme. We had quite a fruitful discussion about being sick, hospitals and animal therapy/support animals in general. The text is fresh and conveys with ease the author’s purpose, without being didactic or overly sentimental, and Ross Morgan’s illustrations are just delightful. I love the scruffiness and ‘mutt’ look of Hedgehog, who reminded me so much of a little dog we had when my girls were kids.

This was also a topic of conversation for the class – who has a scruffy dog? a mixed breed? a pure bred? big dog? little dog? I could easily have transformed this into some productive learning experiences for this class if I had them for longer.

There are teaching notes for this book but for some reason they are aligned to Year 4/5 curriculum links. In my opinion Year 1/2/3 would be the target audience for this one and of course, you could easily adjust the notes to your own required level. One could very easily springboard this to some integrated studies for young ones.

Highly recommended for kiddos from around Prep upwards.